


On life and tattoos.

by IceBreeze



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Drabble, F/F, Tattoos, The Queen and The Guardian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 08:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6277264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceBreeze/pseuds/IceBreeze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four times Allison wanted a tattoo (plus the first time she got one).</p>
            </blockquote>





	On life and tattoos.

**Author's Note:**

> For [Philosphium's](http://philosophium.tumblr.com/)prompt: Allison getting her first tattoo and asking Renee to help her pick it out/be there when she gets it.
> 
> I've always wanted to write something in this style and really, really love tattoo's, so i hope you like it!
> 
>  
> 
> [Please send me an Allison/Renee (or another ship, if you so desire) prompt and I'll write something for you!](http://polyhymina.tumblr.com/ask)

**1.**

The first time Allison decided to get a tattoo was when she was 14 and her rebellion against her parents demands hit full throttle. Her classmates spoke of drugs and alcohol as tools to do so, neither of which seemed like a particularly effective revenge.

_(They were both too transient. She needed something permanent, something that would be a true ‘fuck you’ to her parents faces whenever they saw it)._

It wasn’t until she passed an online article as she was searching for pictures for a school project that the idea came to her. The image showed intricate patterns painted on people’s skin and she became fascinated. The more she learnt about them, the more she wanted one.

_(There was something wonderful about the idea of having a permanent mark on your skin. Of a picture that would be painted there for the world to see and there was nothing they could do about it, because it was there until death left you nothing but a pile of bones)._

She became determined to get one and soon arranged an appointment at a popular parlour, only for her parents to find out.

_(She doesn’t know how they found out but the lecturing about how wrong it was to mark your skin like that left her with a bitter taste in her mouth and nothing to show for it)._

 

**2.**

The next time Allison decides to get a tattoo, she's 17 and was out drinking with her friends. She’d had alot to drink and was wondering whether or not to call a cab (because her friends were more drunk than she was and would be no help at all), when somebody slid into the seat beside her and said:

“Hey, would you be insulted if I said that I find you really attractive and would like to buy you a drink?”

She’d blinked, caught off guard by the blunt greeting and turned to take a closer look at the person beside her. The first thing to catch her eye was the bright purple hair, but that was soon overshadowed by the tattoos. Flowers of all kinds painted their skin, leaving not an inch uncovered by a carefully designed bud. Gradually, she lifted her eyes to meet the smirking hazel pair and smiled, saying:

“No, flatter me all you want. It only does good things for my ego.”

_(She’d left the bar that night with a phone number in her pocket and a memory of inked skin and soft lips. She found herself dreaming of the stories her own skin could tell._

_The illusion lasts up until she returns home to find her parents pissed off at her, for more reasons than one)._

 

 

**3.**

The third time, it was after a meeting with her parent’s went badly (they said she looked hideous with the amount of muscle she’d put on and if she wanted to remain their daughter she would have to lose it) and she was pissed beyond all reason. She hated them for it (their unreasonable expectations, their dictation of her life, the fact that they thought that because they had adopted her out of the kindness of their hearts that she should repay them as such). She wanted to spite them and because playing exy hadn’t deterred them, she thought the only way would be to taint the perfect body they so desired.

_(She remembered the way they had looked at Natasha and the flowers blooming on her skin with unhidden disgust that was for more than her sexuality and found that it was perfect)._

Somewhere between the exy practise, school and her duties as a daughter (more like a doll for them to show off, but whatever), she managed to make an appointment with the tattoo artist for the next Sunday.

_(Sunday found her in hospital for a breakdown, with bulimia on her record and skin still clear of ink._

_She had to settle for joining the Foxes as enough of a slap in the face to her parents, but she still wasn’t satisfied)._

 

**4.**

Throughout the following year, she thinks of tattoo’s often.

She thinks of them when she meet’s Renee and learns her story, learns about her and how the soft colours and kindness blend together to show a girl who’s trying to change and how  she never ceases to be interesting, no matter how much time they spend together and how well they get to know each other inside and out.

_(She thinks of pale pinks and blues spreading across her skin in a swirl of colour, to show the world the story of a girl with a soft smile and calloused hands)._

She thinks of them when she speaks to Dan and learns of the passion behind her, the unrelenting determination to fight and win because she’ll be damned if she let’s other people’s prejudice stop her. Of her matter of fact manner when it comes to her career as a stripper and the hell she’ll give anyone who tries to belittle her for it.

_(She thinks of reds and oranges splattered in abstract blocks, screaming to the world about a girl who was never stopped by their voices because she loved as strongly as she lived)._

She thinks of them when she falls in love with Seth. She thinks of them when he dies.

_(She thinks of reds, to show her love for him so that people can see the truth behind him and what he made her feel.She thinks of blacks and greys to show how the world lost it’s colour when he died. She thinks of blues, to show the sorrow in her heart._

_She avoids thinking of tattoos again)._

 

**+1.**

She doesn’t think about tattoos until a long time later, after the mess with Neil had come and gone. He had come out of it with more scars and bruises than he had the skin for, but refused to have plastic surgery. Everyone had accepted it and moved on, because all the more power to him. The scars had become pretty much trademark to him, so they were surprised one day when he walks in with a fox tattooed on his neck (covering some of the many scars dotted here, there and everywhere), they were rather surprised. It suited him, though, and he seemed content, so they let it go with some simple compliments and the beginning of a new bet on what his next tattoo would be.

_(Her money was on it being something related to Minyard or exy)._

But seeing the tattoo struck up the long suppressed sense of longing and she found herself purchasing several magazines containing various designs for them on a whim. She’d shoved them to the bottom of her bag and tried not to think about them until she returned to her room, when she finally allowed herself to take them out and look at them. The pages were crisp and new, filled with image after image of all sorts of tattoos and Allison found herself immersed in them.

_(She wanted her skin to tell a story that everybody would see. But she had fought for so long for one and now that it was within her reach, she didn’t know what to do._

_She didn’t know what to choose and for the first time in a while, she wanted someone to guide her)._

She barely registered the click of the door being unlocked, so when she heard footsteps coming to a stop nearby, she jolted in surprise. Twisting, she found herself staring eye-to-eye with Renee (of course it was Renee, they’d made plans to go to the movies that night and it was her room too), who was smiling at her warmly and she vaguely realized that she’d been lying there for the three hours that have passed since she returned. For a moment, she felt caught of guard, unsure how to act about the stacks of magazines and images that were covering her bed.

_(She felt like a child again, raw and unprepared for how much she cared about something like this. For how worried she was about what Renee would think)._

The need to do something was taken from her hands when Renee cleared a space so she could sit beside her and picked up one of the magazine’s from the bed, pastel colored hair falling into her face as she tilted her head to read. Allison stared for a few moments, feeling strangely vulnerable at the situation, before she forced her attention back to the magazine. A good ten minutes passed in silence before Renee shifted, moving the magazine into Allison’s eye line as she said:

“What do you think of this design? We could get it with different colouring in the same position.”

Allison blinked, staring at the design in front of her as she processed the words, before her mind caught up and she understood. (Renee knew, she knew that this was important to her and she understood what she needed without having to ask. She was there for her and that would never change). Her fingers idly traced the design as she drank it in, imagining how it would look on her (their) skin, before she turned to Renee with a bright grin and said:

“It’s perfect.”

_(Two days later they both leave the parlour with a bird flying free of it’s cage tattooed on to their shoulder blades- Renee’s blue, Allison’s pink.  
_

_For they were free and nothing could cage them now. Not while they had eachother)._

**Author's Note:**

> Can be found on [tumblr.](http://polyhymina.tumblr.com/writings)


End file.
